GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 303657
Gnumeric Template Support
Last modified: 2009-07-05 06:04:59 UTC
I would really like template support in Gnumeric as I would use this feature everyday when I create a new tax invoice for work purposes.
How would such "template support" differ from you opening a file you previously created that contains the desired formatting and formulas?
Mostly by not saving to the opened file by default. Perhaps also by occurring in the File menus as New-with-template and a submenu with installed choices.
New-with-templates with a submenu of recently used templates seems to be a reasonable (and on first glance easy) implementation of that.
As mentioned by Morten you would create a new file based on the selected template and then save to a new file and not to the template file. You would also need to ensure that "Auto Save" does not save to the template file but rather brings up "Save workbook as" dialogue box the first time "Auto Save" automatically runs. Also could you please provide a method for users to edit/customise any existing templates and also please provide a method for users to create/save new templates. Check out KSpread for a good example of templates and how they work within that program.
I do support for this feature. Once I posted this in devel list and it was said a patch has been worked out. But, I could not find the feature till now. Mr Guelzow must under stand that template may not have the values but the skeleton alone (say for an Income & Expenditure statement), but the actual file carries values for individual project. Template just saves us from repetitive works.
Feature now implemented?
Created attachment 136460 [details] [review] Partial patch Not implemented, but here's a partial patch that sets up the UI for this. It has issues, though: the menu should probably not be populated until needed as it slows us down on startup. This is a good starting point if you wish to make the actual function of this and produce a patch.
Created attachment 136536 [details] [review] Much better, but still partial, patch
This problem has been fixed in the development version. The fix will be available in the next major software release. Thank you for your bug report. We are going to need some better templates, though. "invoice", for example, pretty much stinks!
Let your userbase come up with the templates. Just make sure you heavily promote the new templates feature(with a tutorial on how to use it) and ask the userbase to submit their templates for inclusion into the following version.